Game penalty-imposing method

ABSTRACT

A multi-player card or like game that involves “going out” (getting rid of held cards) to win the game, also involves imposing penalties on opposing players by forcing them to draw a card from the hand of the penalty-imposer. Where the last card of the imposer is taken by the imposee, the game continues until what would be the next normal playing turn of the imposer. This presents other players with the opportunity to impose a like penalty on the first penalty imposer prior to that next turn, forcing the game to continue.

This invention relates to a method of playing a card game or the like inwhich a plurality of cards of a deck are utilized to impose penalties onopponents, but in which the main game objective is to “go out”, i.e., bygetting rid of all cards held in order for a hand to end. Penaltyimposition in this game is a secondary objective of preventing opponentsfrom going out. The latter requires the penalty-receiving party to drawat least one card from the hand of the imposer, normally at thereceiver's next turn of play. In particular, if the last card is drawnfrom the imposer's hand by the penalty-receiver, the imposer does not“go out” until it is again his/her sequential turn to play. This allowsanother player to impose a similar penalty on the first penalty-imposerbefore the latter's next turn, requiring him/her to then draw a cardfrom the hand of the second penalty-imposer at what would normally bethe first imposer's next turn. This results in game continuation untilsomeone can go out through either 1) completely ridding one's hand ofcards by melding or 2) by a penalty-imposer having his/her last carddrawn by a penalty-receiver without another player first imposing a likepenalty on the penalty imposer before what would normally be thepenalty-imposer's next turn to play. This application is based on U.S.Provisional Patent Application 60/690,445 filed Jun. 15, 2005.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The game of rummy, perhaps the most common card game played in theUnited States and maybe even around the world, is well known. The bookHoyle Up-to-Date on official rules of card games, published andrepublished 46 times from 1887 through 1961 and no doubt as many moretimes since then, lists 12 rummy games and myriad of other games thathave rummy-like melding of cards on a table. In addition to rummy games,there are numerous other games where a “skip” card is utilized in playto cause one player to lose a turn to play if another player has imposeda skip penalty on the one player. In all known instances, these lattergames simply cause the skipping to be the only penalty imposed whenevera skip card is played. If more than just skipping is known and done, itis something of which I am unaware. Skipping alone is entertaining andthe cause for some measure of mirth in a fun-type game. What has beenmissing in the process of skipping is that this simple mirth can beconverted into great hilarity by adding to or substituting for theskipping a novel method of playing the game that also involves thepotential of game continuation under certain circumstances.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention involves playing of a card or like game where one mode ofplay involves penalizing opponents to inhibit them from “going out”,i.e., ridding their hands of remaining cards. It is accomplished byone's playing a special penalty card against an opponent and forcinghim/her to make a blind draw of one card from your hand at his/her nextplaying turn. If the blind draw results in taking of the last card fromyour hand, you do not “go out” until it is again your normal playingturn, since another player may penalize you similarly before that turnarrives, and the game is forced to continue.

It is a principal object of this invention to provide a card playingmethod with a unique feature in which going out is the primary object,but under certain circumstances, even though a given player no longerhas any cards remaining in his/her hand, play must continue until thegiven player's playing turn.

Specifically, an object is to require a penalized player to draw a cardfrom the hand of a first penalizer, and whereby in a situation where thecard drawn from the first penalizer had been the final card remaining inthe first penalizer's hand, other players may similarly penalize thefirst penalizer prior to the first penalizer's next normal turn to play,thereby forcing continuation of the game.

Another object is to combine the aforesaid penalty with the penalizedplayer suffering loss of his/her playing turn.

Still another object is to allow multiple players to penalize the sameopponent, and to require that that penalized player draw a card fromeach penalty imposer at successive ones of the penalized player'splaying turns in the same order in which the penalties were imposed.

Another object is to score the value of the penalty card against thepenalized player in the event that another player goes out prior to thedraw of a card from the penalty-imposer's hand.

Other objects will become apparent from the following description, inwhich reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified plan view of an elongated table accommodating sixplayers to play a rummy game, which includes method features of thisinvention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged depiction of one of the melded runs of cards ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an example of one player's unexposed hand of cards fordemonstrating how cards may be melded or used for penalty purposes.

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of a draw pile of undealt cards contained ina slidable tray for passing around the table of FIG. 1 in instanceswhere the table size does not enable all players to reach a draw pilecentered on the table.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

When the primary feature of this application is used in the common gameof rummy, it is preferred that it be played with a game that is known asTZAP™. TZAP has several features of play that are uncommon to any otherrummy game, and the subject of this application adds but one more,making the overall game rated by many who have played it as beingsuperior to other rummy games. To illustrate some of those features, onecan refer to U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,122 issued to William Weigl et al onJun. 14, 2005. U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,122 is fully incorporated herein byreference, since a great many of the play features discussed therein areplayed in the game of TZAP. After the application that matured into theabove patent had been filed, an additional play feature that results inone of the most hilarious aspects of the game was discovered. Thepenalty aspects of the game were discussed there, but it consisted ofmerely “skipping” a player and forcing the skipped player to make ablind draw of one card from the player imposing the penalty. It wasnoted that this sometimes caused a game to end right then and there,because the drawn card was often the very last card held by thepenalty-imposer. The blind card draw was merely added to the rules tomake a penalty more severe by adding to a losing player's negative pointcount, since scoring was done by counting card points held by the losersat the time someone goes out. But then it was discovered that anotherplayer might choose to impose a penalty on the first penalty imposerbefore his/her last card was drawn. That caused the penalty imposer toalways seek to penalize the player to his/her immediate left, so that noone could intervene between them, and when the player at the left woulddraw the last card, the game would end. This conflicted with the intentand focus of the game rules of enabling imposing a penalty on any playerin the game, particularly one who had the lowest score in the game. TZAPis a game where the lowest total score wins. It was felt that imposing apenalty on any player was a desirable goal of the game, but the solutionto the conflicting problem was not forthcoming for a considerable periodof time. Finally, I resolved the issue by requiring the game to continuefor a short period whenever a person's last card was taken through ablind draw. It was kept going until it would again be the normal turnfor the penalty-imposer to play if his last card had not been removed bythe blind draw. Only then could the imposer go out, but only if no otherplayer imposed a penalty on the first penalty-imposer before his/hernext turn. It didn't matter whether the second penalty was imposedbefore or after the blind draw. This increased the chances of the gamebeing forced to continue, often with great hilarity, providing someoneholding or accessing a penalty-imposing card was able to play it intime.

The added feature described above was not without problems. Some playersbecame confused, mistakenly thinking that whenever any player would goout by routinely melding his/her last card, play had to proceed aroundthe table for one more round before the game was over. This requiredfurther consideration, since rummy games of the general nature of TZAPprovide for going out only by melding, the game ending right then andthere. In order to circumvent this problem and avoid further confusion,a new game provision was added. It required that the game would endimmediately if a player's last card was disposed of by melding, butcontinued around until it became a penalty-imposer's next normal turn toplay only when his/her last card was removed by a blind draw. Thissolved the problem. When it did, it was found to be one of the funniestparts of an already-fun game. Now, when other player's note that apenalty-imposer has but one card left and will lose it in a blind draw,they all go “gunning” for the penalty-imposer. By preventing orinhibiting another from going out, a player increases his or her ownchance of doing so. Oftentimes, more than one penalty-imposer suffershaving to draw a card from another player in the same hand, and insteadof going out upon losing his/her last card by a blind draw, the gamecontinues. Six penalty cards are typically provided in a TZAP deck,providing up to five opportunities per hand to force game continuationusing the approach of this patent application.

The technique by which all of the foregoing occurs is best discussed bydescribing play with the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 1, there isillustrated an elongated playing surface or table 10 around which sixplayers A-F are seated. After a dealer has been selected, five cards aredealt face down clockwise to each player, and the residue cards areplaced face down as a draw pile 12. The illustrated deck has 58 cards, astandard deck of four different suits from Ace-King and six penaltycards 16, one design of which is fully shown in FIG. 2. It will be notedthat a pair of horizontal bars 18 appear on the penalty card 16. Thepurpose of these bars 18 (which may also be one solid color for theentire face of the card 18) will be discussed later.

As play takes place in TZAP, each player is permitted to meld one, two,but no more than three cards from a hand 14, a typical one of which isshown in FIG. 3. In order to start, a first player must meld a Set of atleast three cards of the same number or a Run of three cards of the samesuit in a sequence. Until a first Set or Run is melded, each player mustdraw one card from the pile 12 and “pass” if unable to play. After afirst Set or Run has been melded, anyone can add to or rearrange anymelded Set or Run provided that on completion of that player's turn, allmelded Sets and Runs contain at least three cards. The cards 16,although designated as “penalty” cards, are preferably dual-function“wild/penalty” cards. They will be considered dual-function cards forpurposes of this description, however, since that is how they are usedin the aforementioned TZAP game.

On the table of FIG. 1 there appear six melded Sets and/or Runs. TheDiamond Run in the lower center/right side of FIG. 1 is enlarged andappears as FIG. 2. As melded, they are preferably shingled vertically,high to low, much like the common “dummy” hand in the very popular gameof bridge. Cards are melded with their upper ends adjacent the draw pile12 and extend essentially radially toward the outer edges of the table10. All cards melded on the table become community property available toall players, able to be rearranged, added to, substituted into, etc.,much as in the world-recognized tile game of Rummikub. For example, theRun of FIG. 2 extends downward from the diamond 8 to the diamond 3, withthe 3 and 6 of the Run being replaced by wild/penalty cards 16. It willbe noted that the bars 18 at the tops and bottoms of cards 16 stand outin the Run of FIG. 2. They would similarly stand out in the hand 14 ofFIG. 3, regardless of their position in the hand 14.

To illustrate a few of the techniques of playing TZAP, a player holdinghand 14 could play his diamond 2 below the wild card 16 that representsthe diamond 3, or could play his card 16 above the diamond 8 (torepresent the diamond 9) and add the diamond 10 above it. Also, if heheld either the diamond 3 or 6, he could substitute it for one of thecards 16 of FIG. 2 and use that card 16 with his pair of 7's to meldthem as a Set. If he so chooses, he can also remove the diamond 8 fromthe Run of FIG. 2 and use it to meld with his card 16 and the diamond 10as a new 10, wild, 8 diamond Run. This discussion is merely toillustrate how one form of rummy or other game might be played, but doesnot yet discuss the real import of the claimed subject matter.

Let us suppose that player A holds a card 16 in his/her hand or is ableto access a card 16 from melded cards, (such as by holding the diamond 3and substituting it for the card 16 that it represents in the FIG. 2Run). And suppose that player A also notes that player B has but one,two or three cards remaining in hand, potentially being able to go outat his/her next turn. The game can end if player B can meld all of hisremaining cards at his/her next turn, since a maximum of three cards canbe played at one turn. To prevent this, player A may, as one of histhree-card limit play, play a penalty card 16A face up before player B.Player A thereby becomes a first penalty imposer. At B's next turn,he/she must then make a blind draw of one card from the hand of player Aand pass without playing.

Suppose that at the time of the blind draw by player B from player A,the last card of penalty-imposing player A was removed from his/herhand. Theoretically, since the game is typically one where getting ridof all cards from hand ends that game, player A would be out of cardswhen his last card was removed from his/her hand by the blind draw andthe game should be over. But not so, according to the method of thisinvention. Here, before player A can officially go out, players C-F havethe opportunity to play one more time before player A's normal next turnwould arrive. Any one of those players may impose a similar penalty onplayer A by placing a card 16 before him/her, as was done by player A toB. Thus, when player A's next turn arrives, he/she must make a blinddraw of one card from the player who penalized him/her. And the gamecontinues, since A now has one card in hand. When playing TZAP, noplayer knows which cards any other player holds, thus they do not knowif any particular player holds or can access a penalty card 16 from thetable for purposes of also imposing a penalty. This means that a penaltyimposition is done by guessing which player it is best to penalize.Also, since scoring is negative (the cards remaining in hand whensomeone goes out counting against each player), reference is often madeto the running score to see which player is leading with the lowestscore. That gives some direction of whom to penalize. Note also that anytime one player penalizes any other, any subsequent player can note thatthe penalizing player holds but one remaining card, and can seek toinhibit the penalizer from going by means of having his/her last cardremoved by the blind draw.

Going back to player A penalizing player B with penalty card 16A, assumethat this was done after a penalty card 16B had been previously imposedon player B by player E in the same round of play. In that case, atplayer B's next turn, he/she would make a blind draw of one card fromthe hand of player E, turning card 16B face down, out-of-play at thattime. The preferred method of this invention requires one loss of turnfor each penalty imposed. But note that card 16A remains face up, stillin play yet. Player B does not draw from the hands of both players E andA at the same time. Player B must wait one additional turn after drawingfrom player E before he can make the actual blind draw from player A. Inthe event that another player goes out before player B can make theblind draw from player A who gave him/her card 16A, the value of card16A (in TZAP, negative 25 points) is added to the score of player B.This tends to minimize “piling on” against one player, since the laterto “pile on” must wait an additional turn before a card is taken fromhand by the penalized player.

FIG. 4 merely illustrates a tray or holder 20 in which the draw pile 12may be contained and slid around a long table when “passing” instead ofmaking all reach to the center of the table to draw a card whennecessary. The tray 20 can have a felt pad or feet placed at itsunderside to avoid table marring.

Partnership play of TZAP, e.g., three teams of two players each or twoteams of three (when six are playing), is played the same way as thedescribed individual-play game, but with one main addition to thetechnique of playing. That addition is that as part of any player's3-card play, one card may be passed face down to a partner. The strategyis to help partner improve each other's hands. When playing thusly, thepenalty imposing provisions noted above also apply to the player passingthe card. Further, if a card is passed to a partner in a player'sgetting rid of his final cards, the passed card is treated similarly toa blind draw for purposes of continuing play until the next turn of theplayer doing the passing. This enables the opposing team to impose apenalty on the passer and thus continue the game.

While the game has been described as a “card” game, obviously it can beplayed with tiles or other game elements. The term “card” has been usedfor simplicity of understanding play. Also, while the deck used may bestandard cards, they may also be in Arabic numerals, letters of thealphabet or other features where a sequence is used in the creation ofRuns. Various other changes may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the claims.

1. The method of playing a card game in which the primary objective isfor one of multiple players to win the game by getting rid of all cardsoriginally dealt to or acquired by that player during play of the hand,said card game including a deck of playing cards and a plurality ofpenalty cards at least one of which can be played by a first penaltyimposing player against any opponent in the game during the penaltyimposing player's turn, the recipient of the penalty card beingpenalized by having to draw at least one card from the hand of the firstpenalty imposing player, said method including the steps of: a) saidplayers playing in normal sequence about a playing surface by meldingcards on said surface in accordance with game rules; b) continuingsequential play of the game after the first penalty imposing playerpenalizes an opponent with said at least one penalty card and thatopponent draws the last-remaining card from the hand of the firstpenalty-imposer; c) said sequential play continuing until such time asit would normally again become the first penalty imposing player's turn,whereby, in the event a second penalty imposing player imposes a similarpenalty on the first penalty imposing player with a second penalty cardprior to the first penalty imposing player's next normal turn to play,the first penalty imposing player is obligated to similarly draw a cardfrom the hand of the second penalty imposing player at the first penaltyimposing player's next turn; and, d) thereupon continuing play of thehand until one player gets rid of all cards from hand without beingobligated to draw a card from another penalty imposing player.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1 wherein said game is one of the family ofgames known as rummy, in which sets of three cards of the samedenomination but different suits and runs of at least three sequentialcards of the same suit are melded on said playing surface and are freeto be rearranged by any player in the game.
 3. The method according toclaim 2 wherein said penalty cards are optionally usable either forpenalizing an opponent or as wild cards in the melding of runs or sets.4. The method according to claim 1 wherein, in the event two or moreplayers impose a penalty against the same opponent and require thepenalized opponent to draw cards from the imposing players at thepenalized opponent's turn, a first draw is made from the hand of thefirst penalty imposing player at the first opportunity of the penalizedopponent to play, and a second draw is made from the hand of the secondpenalty imposing player at the penalized opponent's second turn to play.5. The method according to claim 1 wherein scoring of points is made bycharging each player with the values of cards remaining in hand when oneplayer goes out, and wherein, in the event a penalty has been imposedagainst one player and a different player goes out prior to thepenalized player making a draw from the penalty imposing player, thevalue of the penalty card is charged against the penalized player. 6.The method according to claim 1 wherein a penalized player is inhibitedfrom playing at a turn in which he must make a blind draw of a card froma penalty imposing player.
 7. The method of playing a rummy game inwhich sets of three identically-numbered cards of different suits andruns of sequentially-numbered cards of the same suit are initiallymelded on a playing surface during consecutive play by multiple playersabout said surface, wherein such sets and runs may be manipulated andadded to during play in order to reduce card holdings in an attempt to“go out”, said method including the steps of: a) providing said deckwith a plurality of penalty cards the faces of which are distinguishablefrom the suits and numbers of the remaining cards of said deck; b)enabling each player to penalize any opponent in said game at saidplayer's turn by turning a penalty card face up before the opponentbeing penalized; c) requiring the penalized opponent to make a blinddraw of a card by the opponent from the penalizing player's hand at theopponent's turn; and d) in the event the penalizing player's last heldcard is taken in the blind drawing, continuing play of the hand untilsuch time as it again becomes the penalizing player's turn to play,whereby another player has the opportunity to impose a similar penaltyon the first penalizing player prior to said turn to play and therebyforce a second blind draw by the first penalizing player from the secondpenalizing player's hand at his next playing turn and continuation ofplay of that hand.
 8. The method according to claim 7 including theadditional step of the second penalty-imposing player imposing a similarpenalty on the first penalizing player prior to the first penaltyimposer's next turn to play.